A Western Isles man is on a voyage of discovery after uncovering a message in a bottle on the coastline – which bobbed its way across the Atlantic.
Andrew Eaton-Lewis from Uig was walking Cliff beach on Sunday with his family and friends when he discovered the barnacle-covered bottle washed up on the shore.
The 48-year-old admits they initially thought the bottle, discovered on Lewis, was merely leftovers from a coastal picnic.
However, upon closer inspection, the group discovered the poignant note inside a glass bottle covered in barnacles.
Mr Eaton-Lewis said: “We had some friends up from Edinburgh and their children and we had been going for a walk where we live.
“They wanted to go to the beach, so we just quite randomly chose Cliff Beach. There are lots of different beaches you can go to, so it was sheer chance that we ended up on this one.
“At first I thought someone had just left it. There was a little plastic plate sitting next to it, so I thought someone was having a drink on the beach or a picnic.”
Crossing the Atlantic
He added: “We had a closer look at it and then we realised it had been in the sea for quite a long time as it had barnacles attached to the lid. Then we realised there was something inside it and someone had gone to a lot of trouble to seal it up.
“It had a cork with the bottle top on as well. The letter itself was inside a plastic bag which had been stapled up to try and keep the water off it.”
The message, dated January 26, 2020, was written in French and addressed by Andre Huet from Quebec, Canada.
The message is one of two written by the Canadian to be discovered across the depths of the Atlantic, with another found in Portland.
In the hopes of translate the French letter, Mr Eaton-Lewis reached out to his Facebook followers for help, with Daniel Paquet able to translate sections of the letter.
It’s understood Mr Huet tossed the letters into the ocean from Cloridorme wharf, in the hope that someone finds them.
He added: “I scanned the letter and tried to darken the writing as much as I could to try and sharpen it. I then posed the letter on Facebook and put an appeal out asking if anyone has really good French who may be able to transcribe it.
“A friend of a friend translated the whole thing, with a few gaps, enough to get the sense he had sent bottles before.”
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Uncovering the author
Mr Eaton-Lewis is no stranger to messages in a bottle.
On his wedding day in Portobello, in Edinburgh, the happy couple tossed a message in a bottle into the sea with hopes of reaching far away shores.
To their disappointment, the bottle was found washed ashore just yards away.
The 48-year-old has now pledged to send a short letter to the Canadian author to establish why he began the sending the messages.
He added: “I’ve written him a short letter and taken a photo of the bottle on the beach and I’m going to post that to the address that’s on the letter and hope that he’s still there. It was obviously a year and a half ago so he might have moved.
“I’ve included my email address so maybe he will respond. I’d be interested to find out a bit about who he is and why he does this. I would certainly like him to know his messages have made it across the Atlantic twice, because that’s really exciting.”